I Fought the LOL and the LOL WonHow Computer-Mediated Communication Destroyed

Language (or Not)

Mom

What’s your presentation called?

…nobody will get that reference

Doing it anyway!

Mom thinks you’re special :-)

…thanks mom SEND

Computer-Mediated Communication

Synchronicity: Synchronous vs Asynchronous

Persistence: whether transcripts are recorded

Covers a wide variety of technologies: message boards, e-mail, instant messaging, video conferencing, social networks, etc.

Anonymity: how much personal identity is revealed by the medium?

Unique aspects of CMC influence the user’s behavior and use of language

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Texting

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Texting has become one of the most ubiquitous forms of CMC

Sending a text is a synchronous communication

Text messages are persistent

Provides some aspects of anonymity

The texting environment is substantially different from formal writing and from traditional speech

Texting vs Face-To-Face

Systematic studies have found that the structural elements of a text conversation are very similar to face-to-face conversations.

Both tend to be ‘telegraphic’, participants engage in turn-taking

F2F communications include ‘prosodic cues’: tone, pauses, and body language

Text communications have developed new linguistic and paralinguistic features to compensate.

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The Evolution of ‘lol’

Originated on the Usenet message board as an acronym for ‘laughing out loud’

One of the most frequently used acronyms used in CMC today

Its use has expanded beyond a signifier for laughter

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Derpina

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What r u doing today

U poor thing lol

going to cram at the library lol

I know. thanks

‘lol’ takes on new meaning

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‘lol’ has become commonplace as a marker for empathy

It is a particle: changes the social value of the sentence without changing overall meaning

Analogues of ‘lol’ exist in spoken forms of most languages and dialects

Signs and Symbols

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The emotional value of pure text is often easily misunderstood

Nuances in meaning can be lost.

Emoticons and Emoji have provided approximations of prosodic nuances of F2f communications

Signs and symbols allow users to clarify the emotional valence of their message in the absence of facial expressions

:-):-( ;-)

Signs and Symbols

She is so smart!

She is so smart

She is SO smart!

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Social Interaction

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The paralingustic choices made through CMC are conscious

CMC participants can optimize their self-presentation

This leads to the emergent property of hyperpersonal communicaton

CMC participants may engage in higher levels of self-disclosure and experience a heightened level of intimacy with their audience

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CMC and Formal Writing

There is a large divide between manners of speaking and writing

CMC has been pinned with blame for degrading formal writing skills

Over centuries, academics have complained about students’ writing skills

Students have never been good at formal writing

Formal writing is an entirely different process from speaking

1956 English Professor

tl;dr… SEND

Many do not know the alphabet or multiplication table, cannot write grammatically, and seem to have been trained to hate mental exercise.. Often they cannot read intelligently and dislike any reading.

1917 Connecticut Schoolteacher

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From every college in the country goes up the cry, ‘Our freshmen can’t spell, can’t punctuate.’ Every high school is in despair because its pupils are so ignorant of the merest rudiments.

Pedant writing in Latin, 63 A.D.

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Spoken Latin has picked up a passel of words considered too casual for written Latin, and the grammar people use when speaking has broken down. The masses barely use anything but the nominative and the accusative… it’s gotten to the point that the student of Latin is writing in what is to them an artificial language, and it is an effort for him to recite in it decently.

Bilingualism and Bidialectalism

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Studies show that being able to master a second language or even a second dialect have beneficial impacts

CMC has created an environment where new dialects and languages evolve

Despite the ubiquity of CMC, especially texting, there is still room for formal writing skills development

References

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• McWhorter, J. (2013, February 1). John McWhorter: Txting is killing language. JK!!! Retrieved September 30, 2015, from https://www.ted.com/talks/john_mcwhorter_txtng_is_killing_language_jk

• Tagliamonte, S., & Denis, D. (2008). LINGUISTIC RUIN? LOL! INSTANT MESSAGING AND TEEN LANGUAGE. American Speech, 83(1), 3-34. http://dx.doi.org/10.1215/00031283-2008-001

• Computer Mediated Communication. (2015, September 8). Retrieved October 6, 2015, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer-mediated_communication